Posts Tagged ‘Bruce Willis’

Many mid-thirtysomethings like myself got a little excited back in 2009 when G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra hit theaters. Happy memories of action figures and cartoons dancing in our heads, combined with the technology we have today; what could possibly go wrong?

Well, also like myself, many of them walked away not very entertained. If you’ve seen that movie, odds are you have two prevailing thoughts: “Well, that sucked,” and “I got burned by the first; no way I’m checking out the sequel.” Allow me a moment to convince you otherwise…

First off, if you want a proper review of G.I. Joe: Retaliation our own Nat Almirall wrote up a doozy in March, 2013. There be spoilers there, matey.

The current trend in sequel box office returns is tied to perception. Gone are the days of diminishing returns as a rule, these are the golden times for franchises. How the general public feels about the franchise is now king, and the thing about feelings are, they can be changed.

Case in point, GI: Joe: Retaliation.

The franchise had a below average first film that left a sour taste in the mouths of cinema-goers. It did have a strong opening weekend and final total gross so a sequel was inevitable, but something had to be done to ensure the public perception didn’t bury the new film before it had a shot.

Warming the hearts of movie executives everywhere, GI: Joe Retaliation proved that franchise perception can be fixed and sequels to poorly received films have a shot to come out as strong as its predecessor without waiting on word of mouth or reviews to set in.

I had a soft spot for 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and I have a soft spot for this, even with its flaws. If you remember the end of the last film (and never mind if you didn’t), Zartan is impersonating the President of the United States in one step of Cobra Commander’s grand plan for world domination.

I think this is supposed to take place right after the last film, but no matter. All you need to know is that the President is not the real President, and the Joes are not aware of it. They’re busy raiding a nuclear arms facility in Pakistan — a mission devised by Zartan (Arnold Vosloo/Jonathan Pryce) to wipe out the Joes when they call for transport after the mission.

All of them, save for Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki), Roadblock (The Rock), and Flint (D.J. Cotrona) are killed. Fortunately Snake Eyes (Ray Park) is away on another mission training with Jinx (Elodie Yung) and quite possibly the worst actor in the entire film, RZA as the aptly named Blind Master.

What the Hell is going on? Who’s in what car? Which one is the bad guy? These are the questions that arose during the first fifteen minutes of A Good Day to Die Hard‘s car chase. That the action confuses more than excites is a bad, bad sign.

The movie opens in a Russian prison where billionaire Yuri Komarov (Sebastian Koch) is awaiting trial for…um…potentially snitching out the bigwig Chagarin (Sergei Kolesnikov). From the outset, it’s not clear who is actually the bad guy — Chagarin explodes when Komarov refuses to give him a certain file, so maybe he’s the bad guy, but then Komarov is a billionaire — and one who plays chess in prison at that — doesn’t that automatically mark him as the bad guy?

But then we switch to a night club, where Jack (Jai Courtney) assassinates Anton (Roman Luknar). Is Jack the bad guy then? Apparently not, since we’re now in America, where John McClane (Bruce Willis) is at the airport, heading to Russia to bail out Jack, who’s his son. Evidently Jack works for the CIA, which now condones public killings.

Yes, the first G.I. Joe was pretty to look at, but dumb. Much like its star. Of course, even if it was not everything it could have been, the gang at Paramount must be an optimistic bunch and so, there’s a sequel on the way.

This time the movie is called G.I. Joe: Retaliation and it stars Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, Bruce Willis and Jonathan Pryce in a story featuring COBRA’s infiltration of the U.S. Government and the Joes saving the day.

It’s directed by John M. Chu and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. Those are some pretty accomplished people, maybe this won’t be as bad as we think? Maybe.

At any rate, there’s a new trailer for the movie for you to check out. Look for the movie itself to arrive on March 29, 2013.

We like this. So should you. Bruce Willis is back at it again as everyone’s favorite anti-hero John McClane in the latest installment A Good Day to Die Hard. This time around he fights with the Russians and blows a lot of stuf up.

Plus, he’s accompanied by his son and even his daughter makes an appearance. Now if they could just get Holly back for this it might be really fun. Although, Bonnie Bedelia hasn’t aged quite as well as Willis so that might be an issue for some. Still, it would be fun to see her come back. All in the family and all that.

Anyway, here’s the trailer. Look for A Good Day to Die Hard to hit theaters on February 14, 2013. Yes, Valentine’s Day.

Trailer day continues with the first one from the upcoming Die Hard sequel, currently entitled A Good Day to Die Hard. In this one Bruce Willis’ John McClaine and his son John Jr. travel to Russia to battle the bad guys.

Have to say it, this one looks pretty fun. Check out the trailer after the break and let us know what you think.

If you’re a fan of sci-fi stories set in a dystopian, Dickensian future of rampant immorality and violence, or have simply been wondering why M. Night Shamalayan doesn’t meld Twelve Monkeys with Rambo and bring back Bruce Willis to help him do it, you’re in luck. Looper stars an intense Joseph Gordon-Levitt, nearly unrecognizable in prosthetics, contacts and distractingly heavy makeup that renders his face nearly 2D, as young Joe, a 25-year-old looper in the year 2042, and Willis himself as Joe 30 years into the future, in the year 2072.

If it weren’t futile, I’d try to give a summary of Looper‘s extremely intricate, convoluted and possibly hole-ridden plot. Suffice it to say that it involves fate, paid killers, Chinese mafia, secret bunkers, telekinesis, good-hearted prostitutes and the toddler tantrums to end all toddler tantrums. And that after the screening I attended, critics stood around in heated discussion for quite a while, trying to work it all out.

Last week I said this was not going to be a big weekend, even with three new films nothing really had good Box Office potential. Even though the final tallies proved that this was indeed a lack luster weekend no film actually had a horrible haul.

The ‘big’ winner of the weekend was The Expendables 2, the sequel to the action extravaganza that dared to load as many action superstars as possible into about an hour and a half ‘splosion. The sequel was probably originally expected to do bigger business than it’s predecessor with its bigger cast and PG-13 rating.

Somewhere along the way expectations tempered and the film’s $28.7 Million take is probably close enough to expectations. Even though it is near expectations, it was still on the lower end, so at this point word of mouth has to be the saving grace for this testosterone fueled franchise.

Second place went to The Bourne Legacy which brought in just over $17 Million. Its drop was on par with the previous films in the franchise, but because the first weekend was weaker the film still lags. That said for a pretty big overhaul, the film has performed pretty well, and there is clearly life left in this series.

Scrapping into third place is the stop motion animated film ParaNorman. The supernatural animated picture hit the stop motion animated glass ceiling with a decent $14 Million which is not great, but hardly bad either. It is nice that the film is playing to some business, but it would have been nice to see the film breakout a little more.

Next weekend sees yet another ‘meh’ weekend at the Box Office, in fact we are starting to see the beginning of the end of summer doldrums where tent pole type films with little box office potential or momentum get a release and bang around for the left overs of the summer season pie.

The concept behind The Expendables is admirable, mix together as many bad ass action super stars from the last three decades of film into one franchise. The cast list of the first film read like a who’s who of the greatest action talent, even going so far as to feature Arnold and Willis in cameos.

The second film, out this Friday, uped the ante with the original cast returning along with full roles for The Arnold, Bruce Willis and even Van Damme. As great as that group is how do you top it? Total Film had a chance to talk to the film’s producer Avi Lerner to ask that very question:

We’ve approached Clint Eastwood to be one of the guys, we’ve got a character in mind for him. We’re talking to Harrison Ford. [And we want] Wesley Snipes when he comes back from prison. I’ll give you one more name, we’ve got Nicolas Cage to play [one of the characters]… And we’re going to bring Mickey Rourke back, if he won’t be too crazy. I like Mickey. And of course, all the existing stars [will return]”

Wow, talk about reaching for the stars. Who knows if they will actually nail any of those guys, but it is good to see the producers won’t consider any action icon to big to approach. Which begs the question, when will they give Mel Gibson a call?

You can check out The Expendables 2 this week and stay tuned to The Flickcast for any testosterone riddled casting updates in the future.

Who We Are

The Flickcast brings you the best geek experience. We find the best geek stuff out there and bring it to you. No filler, no BS, just the best stuff. We sift out the crap so you don't have too. Find out More.